Chapter 1: Flashes through Time, Flash 1-3

I squeezed my eyes closed as a brilliant white light flashed through the camp. When I opened them and looked around, everyone was as confused as I. I blinked, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me… our camp was gone. There was nothing left, our tables, our food, the kitchen, our water trough, all gone.

I heard someone calling for Rose and it must have been Bernard. Everyone wandered around in circles, picking up rocks and kicking sticks as if our camp would magically appear underneath one. I reached up and grabbed hold of Boone's necklace. My fingers wrapped around the cord and twisted the charm between my fingers. What the hell just happened? I stood rooted to the spot, afraid to move, afraid to was gone: all our food, our tents, our clothes… all gone.

When I looked up again, Bernard and Rose were leading Sawyer and Juliet up to where we were all gathered. I will admit, I was very happy to see Sawyer. But wasn't he supposed to be on the helicopter? "Everything but us… is gone," Bernard said, looking as confused and lost as I felt.

"It's not gone," said a voice walking up the beach. I turned to see who it was and sighed shaking my head slowly. Daniel Faraday, resident science nerd emerged from the beach.

"What do you mean, 'the camp's not gone'? It looks pretty gone to me," Sawyer said, his attitude making a return. "And who the hell are you anyway?"

"That's Dan, our physicist," Miles said, joining our little conversation.

Daniel turned to Juliet,ignoringSawyer's question. "We don't have time.I need you to take me to something man-made. A landmark. Something that was built."

"There's a Dharma Station about fifteen minutes from here." Locke's hatch, the one they blew up, the one that crashed our plane, the reason we were stranded here on this bloody island.

"That's perfect. We should get a move on before it happens again." Daniel started off into the jungle but Sawyer grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

"Before what happens again? And why is our camp gone?" I moved closer to the group, to Sawyer and Juliet, as curious as everyone else as to what was going on. I was terrified and didn't want to be alone. Everyone else at the beach camp was roaming around, picking up rocks as if the camp would just appear beneath one.

Daniel looked up and met Sawyer's eyes. "Your camp isn't gone; it just hasn't been built yet." I raised an eyebrow, staring at Daniel with a blank stare. I was more confused than I had been on this bloody island. "We have to get moving."

Without another word,Juliet led the way with Daniel, Charlotte and Miles right behind. I held back, not knowing if I should interfere with this one. No one ever wanted me tocome along, not the trip to the Pearl and definitely not when Sayid, Ana and Charlie went looking for Henry Gale's balloon."Come on Tinkerbelle, you might as well come too." Sawyer said and I smiled slowly, happy to be included for once.

"All right," I said, following the group down the path. Sawyer walked much faster than I, and had already caught up to the front of the line, leaving me to trail behind Miles. Antisocial and quiet, Miles scared me. He barely talked, and when he did, he was rude and obnoxious. Although, he had helped me quite a bit over the past few days, so he couldn't be all that bad.

We walked along the familiar path to the hatch. The hatch that Locke and Boone had been excavating before his… death. The very same hatch that Jack, Locke and Kate had blown up trying to get inside. The same hatch Desmond had been living inside for years.

"Why don't we just hold up and you can explain." The group stopped on the trail at the sound of Sawyer's voice, even Daniel, although he seemed to be struggling with the request.

"We really don't have time for me to explain this." Daniel babbled about difficulty and time and his words just swam in my head. I had a hard time listening to him when he was just talking normally, let alone trying to explain why our camp was gone. I was confused, and honestly didn't care. I just wanted to know what happened to our camp and the freighter.

I blinked just as Sawyer's hand came up and slapped Daniel across the face. "Oi," Charlotte exclaimed as she raced forward towards Daniel. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

"Shut it ginger or you're getting one too." He turned back to Daniel. "Now talk."

Nodding, Daniel started to explain what was happening. "Think of the island like a record, spinning on a turntable. Well now that record is skipping. Whatever Ben Linus did down at the Orchid Station somehow dislodged us."

"Dislodged us from what?" Miles asked, echoing my thoughts.

"Time."

"So that's why our camp is gone," Juliet said. "Because the island is moving through time."

Daniel nodded again. "Either the island is, or we are. Are all of your people accounted for?" Daniel asked, looking from Sawyer to Juliet.

Sawyer shook his head, "not everyone." My mind raced to figure out who was missing. "Locke," he said, answering my thoughts. It figured; Locke was gone again.

We started walking again, a bit faster this time, trying to make it to the station before we moved again. I stopped, hearing a shrill hum and the sky brightened again. Covering my eyes with my hands I squeezed them shut, trying to block out the bright light and excruciating pain. When I opened them again, it was nighttime and the six of us were staring around confused. "Great," Sawyer said, summing up my thoughts. He turned towards the scientist. "So when are we now Wiz-Kid?"

"Well, we're either in the past… or we're in the future." I rolled my eyes, visibly annoyed. I didn't have an advanced degree in physics, but even I could figure that out.

This time, when we started walking, I stayed up front with Juliet and Sawyer. I didn't want to be in the back with the Science Kids that I barely knew. Sawyer and I crashed together on the island and strangely,I was more comfortable with him than people I barely knew. I included Juliet in that group as well.

"We're here," Juliet called, looking down into a large pit.

"Is this the Hatch?" Daniel asked, falling in behind us.

I nodded, but realized he probably couldn't see it in the dark. "It was," Sawyer answered. "Blown up, just like we left it."

"Well, when we are. We're definitely after you and your people crashed here on the island." Daniel knelt down and looked into the black pit.

"That means our camp is probably back? All right I'm headed back there. Kalie, you coming?" I jumped at being addressed directly. Hearing my given name come out of his mouth still shocked me. I was used to being called Tinkerbelle.

"It's not worth it. By the time you get there, it may be gone again. We don't know how often these flashes are coming or when they'll come."

"What if it's not? What if the helicopter hasn't even taken off yet?" Sawyer protested vehemently.

Juliet joined in the conversation now too, "we could warn them, stop them from ever flying to that boat…"

"It doesn't work that way. You can't change anything. Even if you tried, it wouldn't work. Time is like a string. We can move forward, we can move in reverse, but we can't create a new string. Whatever happened will happen."

"Well how do you know that Danny-boy?"

Daniel pulled what looked like a journal or notebook from his pack. "I know that because I've spent my entire adult life studying space-time. This journal contains everything I've ever learned about the Dharma Initiative. I know what's happening."

"How do we stop it?" I whispered the same time Sawyer spoke it aloud.

"We can't."

"Well who can?" Sawyer asked, but Daniel didn't answer.

I turned back to stare at the blown-up hatch, following Daniel's eyes. "So what was this thing, before you guys blew it up?" Miles asked, bending down to look at theremnants of the hatch.

"It was a Dharma Station," Juliet replied. "A man named Desmond lived down it and he was pushing a button every 108 minutes to save the world."

"Really?" For once, Miles actually sounded interested in something. Every other time, he acted like it was a bother to speak, or deal with us.

Juliet smiled and nodded, "yeah, really."

I glanced up at the sky and heard yet another shrill hum. I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears with my hands as yet another flash of brilliant white light lit up the sky. This time when my eyes opened, it was daylight and the hatch hadn't even been built yet. All that was in front of us was a flat mound of dirt.

"Now when are we? Long before the hatch was ever built?" I said, looking around the grassy area.

Juliet walked down and began digging in the dirt. "It's been built, just before you all blew it up." She stood up and wiped her hands on her pants.

Sawyer nodded and began to storm off into the jungle. "Sawyer, where are you going?" I asked, turning towards his retreating form.

"I ain't gonna stand around here without a shirt on for much longer. Back door, I'm goin' to get supplies."

"James, that's not such a good idea…" Daniel started after him, leaving Juliet, Charlotte, Miles and me at the Hatch.

After a few seconds, Juliet nudged my arm and we started off behind Sawyer and Daniel, into the jungle. I could hear Daniel babbling on and on about time and things happening. It made absolutely not sense to me and I personally didn't care.

Sawyer banged on the door of the hatch, yelling at the top of his lungs and Daniel tried to stop him. "You can't change the past, James!"

"Oh," I gasped as Sawyer turned and grabbed Daniel's shirt.

"Everyone I care about just blew up on your goddamn boat. I know what I can't change."

"We should get back to the beach. It's been a long day," Juliet said pulling Sawyer away from Daniel.

Sawyer took my arm and gently pulled me with him, into the jungle. "Come on Tinkerbelle. Let's see if there's anything for us at the beach, shall we?"

He dropped my arm and we walked further through the trees, Juliet behind us and Miles behind her. I didn't look back to see if Charlotte and Daniel were following, personally I didn't really care. That bloody red-head annoyed me anyway.

Where was Sayid? He had been on the helicopter, where they still out there? "Sawyer, what about the helicopter? Weren't you on it? Where's Sayid?" His eyes trailed over my head and I turned to see who he was looking at, Juliet.

"I was… I uh… jumped off. They were headed for the freighter."

"So that means…" I trailed off, chewing on my lip.

"I jumped off the helicopter before it reached the freighter. They were running low on fuel and couldn't make it otherwise. I'm sure they're fine and Sayid is with them." Sawyer tried to sound convincing, but he had no clue where they were or if they were all right. How could he know? He just told Daniel everyone blew up… I could only assume he meant Kate.

I fell silent, my eyes filling with tears. Sayid was gone… who knows where. He could be dead… they all could.

We walked through the trees, over rocks and I tripped over sticks. I even fell once, skinning my hands on a few rocks. Sawyer stopped and helped me up, even offering me a smile as I brushed the dirt off. At this rate, my hands would be bleeding by the timewe got back to the beach.

This was it? This was my life from now on, floating through time? Would I ever see my family again? I only had three months with my brother; would I ever see him again? Hemay have changed over our time here and he wasn't the nicest person. He did things I would rather forget, but he was still my brother and I loved him. He was my only family on the island for over three months.

All my friends, my family were gone. Boone, Shannon and Charlie were dead. Jack, Sun and Sayid were gone. Claire was missing. All that was left were strangers. Granted, I did know them, but not well enough to call them my friends. Sawyer was the only person left I had spoken more than twenty words to.

What was going to happen? When the bloody hell were we? Were we ever going to get rescued?

I followed in silence back to the beach, terrified to say something and be banished away. I tripped over sticks, roots and rocks, one time falling to my knees before Miles helped me back up. "Thanks," I whispered with a small smile, but before the word was even out of my mouth, he was gone, walking back up with the group.

We walked and I wished that we would reach the beach. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.


AN: I wanted to get this up earlier, but the doc. manager wasn't working. Thanks to everyone who read the first story, and I hope you all enjoy this one. Oh, and if you watched the season premiere and know what the heck is going on... please let me know :) i'm more confused than when it started!

Just a review, I don't own Lost. I wish I did; I wouldn't be confused!